Frequently asked questions


What is the change?

On 21 January 2021 a new form for recording personal accidents in SMIS was launched.  The new form combines eight previous SMIS forms in a single, simplified form.  On launch the old forms were retired from use.


Which SMIS forms will be covered by the new personal accident form?

The new personal accident form will cover the following SMIS forms:

 

  • Assault and abuse
  • Awkward body movement
  • Electric shock
  • Exposure to hazardous condition
  • Exposure to hazardous substance
  • Person interacting with animal, object, vehicle or another person
  • Slip, trip and fall
  • Other event resulting in injury or fatality


Why is the change happening?

Following the SMIS/Coruson rebuild (2017), we have received strong member feedback that completing the event forms is difficult, overly complicated and takes a significant amount of time.  This creates issues with data quality, which RSSB and users spend time identifying and resolving, which in turn affects the contents and trust in SMIS outputs.

The forms were originally designed to make it possible to accurately capture complicated chains of events.  However, these types of events are rare.  Including this capability within the forms made recording the more common, simple events complicated and difficult.


The structure and layout of the old forms meant that it was often easy to miss sections that needed completing – leading to data quality issues.

Now with several years of data recorded in SMIS it has been possible to identify those fields where the information is not commonly available, or not used in safety performance reporting.  These fields have been removed or streamlined to increase speed of entry.


How is the new personal accident form different to the previous forms?

  • There are fewer questions for the inputter to answer (approximately 60% of fields have been removed).  Almost all the remaining questions on the form are now mandatory.
  • The new personal accident form can only contain one main sub-event, and a maximum of one prior sub-event.
  • The location, people and their injuries, trains, road vehicles and objects are added to the event as a whole, giving the form a more linear structure that is easier to navigate.  This is a change to the previous forms that required you to link them to each individual sub-event.
  • The location is recorded once per event, rather than for every sub event involved.
  • The location section has been improved.  There is now a “Train” location type available which allows events that occur on-board trains to be recorded more easily.  There are new ways to record the location; at or between ELR and mileages or railway assets.  This provides the data needed for future geographic mapping of events.
  • People, vehicles and other objects added to an event are now assigned the role(s) that they play in the event.
  • The new form has on-screen guidance throughout, providing pointers and useful information to the inputter.
  • There is now a separate platform train interface (PTI) section that appears if the user indicates the event occurred at the PTI.
  • When recording a slip, trip or fall event, the location should be set to where the fall ended (if different to where it began).
  • The possible causes have been made more intuitive and user-friendly and are consistent with the separate causes form.


Does the new personal accident form ask for any new information?

Aside from the new ways of adding a location to the event using ELRs and mileages, the new personal accident form does not ask for any new information.  However, some of the questions have been reworded to make them clearer.


Does the new personal accident form impact any of the other existing forms? 

Aside from the 8 existing forms that are being consolidated into the new personal accident form, none of the other existing forms will be impacted.


How does this impact my Business Intelligence outputs?

Changes to the SMIS database have to ensure that there will be minimal impact on industry's reports that use information from the personal accident forms.


How will I access the new personal accident form?

The new form will be easy to access via the Coruson SMIS homepage.


What happens to my personal accident events already reported using the previous forms?

Personal accident events already reported using the previous forms will still be available to view and edit/update via Coruson in the usual way.


Will I still be able to create records using the old personal accident forms?

 

The old forms will no longer be available to record new events. The new personal accident form must be used to record new personal accident events. 


Further information and help

The new personal accident form will have on-screen guidance throughout, providing pointers and useful information to the user.

There is also more detailed guidance available on the Industry Systems Service Desk:


Training on SMIS input and Business Intelligence extraction are available. Please visit the RSSB website here to book on the next available course.

If you require further help or advice regarding the personal accident form please contact the Industry Systems Service Desk.